As WCBS 880’s Jim Smith reported, Browne said the stop-and-frisk program is part of the success. But he didn’t credit all of the success with the controversial practice.

“It’s in combination with a number of strategies,” he said. “It doesn’t stand alone.”

Putting more emphasis on quickly getting resources to where the crime is, and focusing on gangs, are other strategies that can be credited with the drop, Browne said. Altogether, the murder rate has dropped to 154, compared with 202 for the same period last year.

In fact, for the first 178 days of the year, the city averaged less than a murder a day, according to the New York Times. This was the first time police could recall such a trend for any extended period of time, the newspaper reported.